The Black Hand, ‘Where Are You Now?’ – Exclusive Video Premiere

Remember the name The Black Hand. The upstart rockers have a promising future and they are delivering one of the more intense and emotionally raw videos you'll see this year with an assist from The Walking Dead actor Michael Cudlitz for the equally compelling song "Where Are You Now?" Check out the clip premiering exclusively here at Loudwire in the player above.

Cudlitz, best known as Abraham to The Walking Dead fans and for memorable turns in TV's Southland, Band of Brothers and Grosse Pointe Blank, delivers a vulnerably raw performance as a man struggling to come to terms with a past trauma from his youth. Clearly suffering, the shaken man grasps a photo of his younger self while a younger version watches on from a distance, and band's singer Chris Hughes even takes on part of his persona as well. The Black Hand's song "Where Are You Now?" perfectly soundtracks this breakdown in the Rick Gomez-directed video, with the director flipping the script for a compelling ending.

As for the track itself, it opens with a haunting group vocals, before the low-end heavy aggression kicks in and frontman Chris Hughes pours his soul into the angst-ridden lyrics. The song continues with a subtle build in intensity, as Hughes really digs in emotionally toward the mid-section, pulling in the listener with the power of the message, which is only accentuated in the video by Cudlitz's gripping performance.

Singer Chris Hughes, a former pro BMX rider turned musician, says of the clip, "Working on this video was heavy. Everyone involved left it all on the set. As soon as you walked in the room you felt it. Cudlitz is as real as it gets, a true artist who goes all in every time.”

Hughes' father Frank, an actor who had previously worked with Cudlitz and director Rick Gomez in the Band of Brothers miniseries and helped to produce the video, added, "The minute C (Chris) and I decided to do a short film for the song we knew we had to have some of my Band of Brother guys involved. They really are my brothers, and there is no one I trust more than Rick Gomez. We have a production company, and we write and make films together. We’re both huge music fans and musicians ourselves and we had always wanted to dip our toes into a music video. So when this came up, I knew this was our shot. I would produce, and Rick would direct. We knew there was only one guy who could bring the emotional power for what we needed thematically to the video and that was Cudlitz."

He continued, "Mike and I have been working together for almost 20 years, and I think he’s one of the most profoundly talented actors working today. He’s fearless and nuanced and raw. His performance in this grabs you by the throat. You can’t take your eyes off him. Rick directs him through a range of emotions that most actors don’t get to do in a 120-minute film let alone a little over four minutes. But it begins and ends with the song. C and the band had a great song. A song about something important, told in a haunting and powerful way that just floored us. It was our job do their brilliant work justice. I think in the end we all came together and made something that's unique and memorable and that can touch a lot of people in a very deep way."

Cudlitz also beams about the video experience, stating, "I'm thrilled to be working with Frank and Rick after all these years, but even more honored to work with The Black Hand on this amazing song that slowly rips your heart out. Christopher kills it!"

Hughes is joined in The Black Hand by guitarist Mayauel Garavito, drummer Rob McDonald, bassist Allix Johnson and keyboardist and supporting vocalist Jeremy Grasso. You can pick up the band's self-titled debut in the platform of your choosing here. And stay tuned here to see where the band is playing.